Litigators often counsel witnesses to answer, “I don’t recall,” rather than guess or speculate the response to a question at a deposition. But, sometimes, that approach can backfire. The female plaintiff in this recent Third Circuit opinion I read last night worked as a manager in the defendant’s finance department.…
During Thanksgiving week, I blogged about a Seventh Circuit decision and what makes a plaintiff alleging discrimination “similarly situated” to another employee outside of the plaintiff’s protected class whom the employer allegedly treated more favorably. The Seventh Circuit concluded that a white man who was fired for effectively stealing from…
GFDL, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons Yesterday, we discussed why employers must adopt comprehensive, well-known anti-discrimination policies. That way, victims know what to do to get their complaints of harassment addressed. Today, we’re going to focus on the importance of a prompt employer response that is reasonably designed to…
You guys remember ‘Central Park Karen,’ right? I wrote about her last year. ‘Central Park Karen’ (not her real name) is a white woman who worked as a portfolio manager for an investment company in New York. That is until a video went viral on social media. That video depicted…
The former part-time Director of Operations for a college hockey team was sure that her employer fired her because she was gay. Consider the following: During the 2014-15 season, the women’s hockey team had five staff and coaches, all of whom were gay women. The part-time Director of Operations (also…
Who is my “source”? I got the scoop from EEOC Commissioner Andrea Lucas, who updated us on LinkedIn over the weekend about a Tennessee federal judge who entered this preliminary injunction to stop the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from implementing this technical assistance document issued in June 2021 that…
Yesterday, we covered whether the Family and Medical Leave Act allows women who have an abortion to obtain leave for a serious health condition. Today, we’ll talk about the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA), which amended Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to prohibit employers from taking adverse employment…
That’s effectively the argument the plaintiff, an openly gay man, made in this case. The plaintiff worked as a server at a restaurant. Within a few months, his supervisor spoke to him about taking on a leadership position. (Heavens, no!) But here’s where the plaintiff got rubbed the wrong way.…
Yesterday, I read many headlines, like this one in The Guardian: “Calling a man ‘bald’ is sex-related harassment, employment tribunal rules.” Is it, though? Let’s take a closer look. First off, let’s dispense with a giant disclaimer. This decision is from an English Employment Tribunal, an independent tribunal that makes…
Hopefully, this question doesn’t have you clutching your pearls. I assume that your business has both an anti-harassment policy and regular training. But some of your employees are jerks. Some use foul language, make rude comments, and even cross the line into behavior that may foster a hostile work environment,…